Investment Banking in Netherlands

Can anyone share their experience with IBD in Netherlands? Planning to move to Netherlands, so want to know better whether it holds a strong case against France and Germany. 

Specifically, I seek to understand possibility of moving as a non-Dutch speaker - has anyone done this? Also, I want to understand what are the top banks in the region, and any other valuable insights. I know dutch banks do recruit people who do not know a single word in Dutch but are the exit opps good enough after working at those places?

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BB has regional offices in Amsterdam, but from my observation, they are all Dutch. Three big banks in the Netherlands are ING, Rabo, and ABN, most of the M&A are native/fluent in Dutch, ECM, and DCM depends, majority of them are Dutch too, and every few are non-dutch, however, they might be French, Germany, Italian or Spanish, etc. Kempen Co is a boutique here, they have a preference for Dutch as they are doing Benelux deals. Houlihan Lokey, Jefferies, Macquarie, Nomura, and William Blair have offices here but only recruit Dutch speakers. GL 

 

That depends what you are after. BBs and EBs are not an option as a non-Dutch speaker. It is definitely possible to land M&A/Coverage roles at Rabobank and Kempen. Especially the latter one looks pretty strong on their key focus sectors, that works if you are well versed in a certain industry

 

Yeah ABN, ING, Rabo and Kempen hire non dutch speakers. From my experience, these banks pay way below street however. Plus, you'll always have a ceiling if you don't speak dutch at a Senior Associate + level.The BBs and EBs only accept dutch speakers.

Source: I studied at a Dutch uni and interned at Kempen a few years ago as a non dutch speaker

 

I´ll be starting the MSc Finance and Investmets at RSM this year and I would appreciate if you could give some advice to land an IB job in the Netherlands, considering that I don´t speak Dutch.

 

Yeah, but I want the info on some specific regions in detail hence why I made separate posts for four regions. I was interested in Switzerland too but I found the info in other posts for that so did not make one for Switzerland. Even after making four separate posts, I have not got the detailed info which is sad. I don't know why this forum is not active anymore as it used to be for Europe.

 
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Comp of Dutch banks isn't great because of laws passed after the financial crisis by the Dutch government to cap bonuses and compensation in general within the banking industry. Bonuses have to get approved by the government. ING for example is really focused on its ROE, and is obsessed with lowering expenses. They would rather hire a compliance person with 5 years of experience from a different bank than someone with relevant years of experience that will require being compensated highly for their role. However, ING is doing really well in Europe and their model seems to work well.

I think as a non-Dutch speaker you can definitely get into ING, but it's not easy. In Europe they are like a BB and can have their pick of the lot.

 

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